


Bats, Meet the Avengers

by SharaRaizel



Series: Tim Drake-Wayne-Stark [2]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Crossover, F/M, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-26
Updated: 2017-10-26
Packaged: 2019-01-23 09:16:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12504064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SharaRaizel/pseuds/SharaRaizel
Summary: Needing to get away from Gotham and Damian, Tim takes the opportunity to visit Tony Stark in New York and tour the new Stark Tower. However, little do they know, things are about to happen that'll change their lives. Again.The first of many branching sequels to Tony Stark: Genius, Billionaire, Playboy, Philanthropist...Dad?





	Bats, Meet the Avengers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the long awaited beginning of the first of several sequel spin-offs to my Tony Stark: Genius, Billionaire, Playboy, Philanthropist...Dad? fic, following the option 1 storyline that was voted on by you lovely readers. This starts at the beginning of the Avengers movie. I hope you enjoy it. :)

**2012**

**Friday**

Tim eased up on the throttle of his bike as he entered New York City limits and made his way towards Manhattan. He hadn’t been able to leave Gotham quick enough. Things were still pretty tense at the manor even though a few months had passed since Damian al Ghul “Wayne” had turned up. Bruce was struggling to find common ground with the boy but was slowly - if not awkwardly - bonding with the kid. Tim, however, in spite of the promise he made to Tony a couple of months ago, couldn’t stand the brat and was getting sick of the constant attempts on his life whenever he went over to the manor for training or to start patrol. Damian had singled Tim out because he regarded Tim as the main threat to his so-called “birthright” position as Robin. Dick wasn’t taking the threats on Tim’s life seriously enough, claiming that the brat was just “messing” with him like any other little brother would do. Yeah, Dick. Sure. Maybe if your other little brothers tried throwing shuriken and knives at you every time they saw you like you were a pincushion or a practice target… Actually, hadn’t Jason done that a few times after his resurrection?

Anyway, the point was Tim couldn’t stand to spend his weekend nights at the manor wondering if he’d wake up with another booby trap rigged to his door. Granted, it was good practice in avoiding ambushes and disabling traps which (in spite of being set up by a 10 year old ninja baby) were sadly several steps higher than what most of Gotham’s criminal elements could come up with, but home and the manor were supposed to be places to relax and recharge from patrol. His already limited allotment for sleep was gradually narrowing to hair pulling inducing levels. It was getting to the point where Jack and Dana were threatening to ground Tim from his short week night patrols just so he could get more sleep. Tim didn’t even have time to use any product to style his hair before heading out on patrol most nights (which Dick, Jason, and Tony probably considered a good thing, actually).

Basically, Tim needed a break and in a heartbeat had taken Tony’s invitation to tour and stay the weekend at the new Stark Tower in New York. He’d grabbed his go-bag with his spare Robin suit (because you never knew), hopped on his Ducati, and was racing out of the garage before Tony’d finished trying to convince him to take a weekend off from Robin duty. Tim had called Alfred right after to explain his whereabouts before he was out of Gotham city limits and got the approval he knew he’d get. These days Alfred was the only sympathetic ear he could vent to about Damian’s behavior and knew how much Tim really needed this break.

He then made another call to his father and Dana to let them know he’d be visiting Tony as well. Jack was a lot more reluctant to allow Tim to stay the weekend with Tony, but Tim had kept his grades at satisfactory levels all year in school (even making the A Honor Roll) and hadn’t had any death-defying missions with Batman or the Titans that had resulted in serious injuries recently so he was given parental permission as well. Jack at least reasoned that as long as Tim was in New York, it meant that he wasn’t going out on any serious Bat and/or Titan related missions that could get him killed at night. Tony was finally a good guy among Jack’s list of Tim’s known role models again. Of course when Batman, Nightwing, Red Hood and _Deathstroke_ were the other names on that list… Tony was a completely safe and reasonable option.

Tim slowed as he reached his exit and began to weave in and out of traffic as he got closer to Stark Tower. It was a large towering modern metal and glass building and Tim could only smile and shake his head at it. He quickly found the parking ramp that took him underground, JARVIS directing him to the private parking that led to a hidden garage that reminded Tim of a flashier modern version of the Batcave, complete with dimmed, but ample lighting.

“ _Welcome to Stark Tower, Master Timothy_ ,” JARVIS said, opening the lift door for Tim. There were no buttons in the elevator, but it moved smoothly up once the doors closed. “ _Sir is busy meeting with Miss Potts at the moment, but Master Jason is waiting for you on Sir’s personal floor and will give you the grand tour._ ”

“So Jay’s back from his job in Australia, huh?” Tim mused.

“ _Indeed. Master Jason arrived last evening with Mr. Harper and Miss Kori. Mr. Harper and Miss Kori left this morning for Star City_ ,” JARVIS informed him.

Tim nodded. Just then the lift stopped and the doors opened to a spacious living room where Tim could see Jason lounging on a couch drinking a beer while he watched a Yankees baseball game.

“Sup, Babybird!” the older teen cried, jumping to his feet. “Tony said you’d be coming here, but we didn’t figure so soon. You were just itching ta get out of Gotham, huh?”

“What can I say?” Tim asked. “The place was driving me batty.”

“Boo!” Jason cackled, throwing his arm around Tim’s shoulders. “That was bad, even for Robin.”

“Really?” Tim asked, sarcastically. “And here I thought I was being subtle, compared to what you and Dick have said on the job. I mean, Holy puns, Batman!”

“Little shit,” Jason chuckled, pulling Tim further into the open concept space. “Anywho, here’s the living room. Sitting space here, Tony’s wet bar there-”

“Which I see you’re already helping yourself to,” Tim interjected, looking pointedly at the beer bottle still in Jason’s other hand.

“Shut it, Pretender,” Jason scoffed and then got on with giving Tim a tour around the main private floor.

It turned out that the elevator Tim had arrived on was meant to be the Bat family’s private elevator hidden in the wall that only led to Tony’s personal floor and his lab a floor below. After Tim left his bag in his new room in the tower just down the hall from Tony and Pepper’s Master Suit, Tim and Jason headed back to the living room where Tony and Pepper were now waiting for them.

“Tim!” the two adults cried, coming forward to greet him.

“How are you?” Pepper asked as she took her turn to hug him. “You look tired. It’s the weekend! You should be sleeping in! I hope you’re not picking up on Tony’s bad habits of staying out late and partying.”

Tony made a face and Jason quietly snickered. Pepper was, of course, unaware of Tim’s night job as Robin.

Tim must have taken too long to answer, though because Pepper went from teasing to concerned instantly.

“Is everything alright at home? Has something happened with Jack and Dana?”

“No.” Tim shook his head, smiling reassuringly. “Jack and Dana are fine. I’ve just been working this after school internship thing with Mr. Wayne that keeps me up some nights.”

“Ah,” Pepper hummed, relaxing but her eyes narrowed in a look similar to what Tim had seen aimed at Tony a few times. “So it’s because you’re overworking, huh?”

“And that’s why he’s here,” Tony interjected, pulling Tim away from Pepper and tucked him into his side in a sideways hug. “He’s here to relax, bask in my glory, and help me tinker with some awesome tech, right, sport?”

“Sure, Tony,” Tim chuckled, but hugged the man back.

“Honestly, you two are so alike,” Pepper huffed. “Are you sure he’s not your son, Tony?”

Tony and Tim paused, trading considering looks. They both had known Pepper for years and she’d been dating Tony the previous two. It made Tim happy to see Tony and Pepper together. Their relationship had always been strong and Tim had even begun thinking of Pepper as another mother figure. Dana was nice and everything, but she could never be another mom or mother to him. Janet Drake would always be his Mother, but, like with the way Tony was “Dad,” Pepper was “Mom” if only in his mind. There was something about Pepper that screamed “Mom” to him.

“Actually…” Tony said, he and Tim moving to stand more side by side to make it was easier to compare and see their few physical similarities. “He is.”

Both Tim and Tony smiled sheepishly and in that moment, Jason and Pepper could see how these two could be related.

“Oh my God,” Pepper breathed, watching the man and teen duck their heads and smile wearily back in near freaky unison that was either very well rehearsed, or…

“Freaky isn’t it?” Jason chuckled, grounding her a bit from the surrealism of the moment. “Couldn’t see it for the life of me when I first knew Tim, but now that you know, you’ll keep finding similarities and they’ll be both amazing and creepy.”

That made Tim and Tony scowl at the young man and they crossed their arms, both looking thoroughly unimpressed though their expressions differed somewhat this time. Tony’s was exasperated yet fond, and Tim’s had a darker edge to it that actually reminded Pepper of the one time she’d seen Bruce Wayne glare at a reporter who’d been harassing her shortly after she’d become CEO of Stark Industries.

“Careful, Timmy, your Gotham is showing,” Jason snarked and the younger boy huffed, but the dark edge was gone and the expression was all Stark patent. Jason was right. The similarities were extraordinary and a little disturbing. Now that she thought back on it, there were times Tim had been a little too much like Tony.

Tony was quick but not subtle in diverting the conversation to the fact that tonight, he and Pepper were going to take Stark Tower off the city’s main power grid and power up their new arc reactor power generator. If it worked and proved to be sustainable and a stable, viable power source, SI could patent it and sell Stark Arc Reactor generators around the country and later the world as a legitimate green energy power supply.

She zoned out a little when Tony and Tim began to get into real techno talk about the reactor and headed up to the roof to see the power generator itself. Jason was then suddenly at her side with a glass of sparkling cider in one hand and a bottle of his favorite beer in the other.

“I hate it when they do that,” Jason huffed after handing her the glass. “I love them both, and I can talk shop as much as the next guy, but those two are in another class of their own.”

“I hear that,” Pepper laughed, taking a sip. “God, I can’t believe that I never noticed… well, I _did_ notice, but how could I have not realized it sooner that those two were related? I’ve known Tony for over a decade, and Tim since he was 8, and I’m only just now finding out that they’re father and son?”

“If it makes you feel any better,” Jason sighed, “you’re now one of… four people who know the truth.”

“Who are the other three?” Pepper asked, curious.

“Me, Bruce Wayne, and Alfred Pennyworth.” Jason said, ticking his fingers off. “Oh, and JARVIS. So there are five of us if we’re including the AI. But then if we’re counting JARVIS we’d better count DUM-E, U, and Butterfingers then, so there are eight of us, but only four of us are human, so let’s just say four humans know.”

Pepper chuckled at Jason’s rambling before asking, “How did you and Mr. Wayne find out?”

So Jason told her how he and Mr. Wayne had discovered Tim’s true parentage, and how Alfred Pennyworth had to know because, like JARVIS, butlers (AI and human alike) somehow found out about everything. In other words, it has never been confirmed whether the Wayne family butler knew or not, but it was assumed he did because there was nothing that happened in that household that he didn’t become aware of sooner or later.

Pepper found herself smiling and chuckling at how Jason told the stories, even though his had to be very hard to tell since it’d taken place during arguably the most difficult time in his young life. Since Jason had come to live with Tony and had gotten some therapeutic help, Pepper had come to learn and care about the young man that worked as Tony’s part-time PA and body guard. He was still an angry boy, but he could be very kind as well. He respected her and the rest of the female personnel that worked for SI, sometimes more so than the men working there. He was very chivalrous and had quickly gotten the younger half of the women working there to crush on him. He was a very good looking young man after all. For example, Pepper knew her secretary, Abby Rauen, was quite smitten with Jason and would go doe eyed every time he brought in coffees for not only Tony and Pepper, but for her as well. Pepper just hadn’t had the heart to inform Abby that Jason was only 18.

“Well don’t you two look cozy.”

Pepper looked up and saw that Tony and Tim had returned, a fond smile on both their faces. Tony was quick to take a seat next to Pepper, resting his arm around the back of the loveseat she sat on. Tim chose to perch on the arm of the armchair Jason was seated in, tucking one knee in up close to his chest. Pepper leaned into Tony while she watched Tim and Jason swap snarky banter back and forth, looking like brothers catching up.

“Sorry I didn’t tell you the truth about Tim,” Tony said softly, pressing a soft kiss above her ear.

“Why didn’t you?” she asked, feeling a small pang of regret when Tony looked away, his expression pinched in a worried fashion. “I’m not mad, Tony. I’m just curious. This is clearly a secret you’ve kept for a long time, so maybe I should rephrase it to, why you _did_ decide to tell me?”

“Because you mean a lot to both of us and you understand me better than most,” Tony admitted, his words warming her heart. “You’ve known me for most of my adult life. You know what I was like back then when Tim… When he was born… I wasn’t ready to be a parent. I didn’t want kids. I didn’t want to become my… I didn’t want to be another Howard Stark. I knew I had no business raising a kid. So I was more than ready to wash my hands of the whole thing when I realized Janet Drake didn’t want any kind of child support. But you remember Janet Drake. She was incorrigible when she got it into her head that she wanted something, and she wanted me to have some part in Tim’s life. So she convinced her husband to make me their child’s godfather, and like an idiot I agreed because we were sort of friends at that point. I… don’t think it hit me until the day Tim was born and I saw the official paternity test results.”

“What?” Pepper asked when he didn’t say anything more. She was vaguely aware that Tim and Jason were still in the room, but this was one of the rare moments Tony’s was being completely honest and forthcoming with her about something so private in his life.

“After I held him in my arms for the first time I… realized that I had helped bring a small life into the world. I was holding a baby that was made up of half my DNA… and I was scared. I knew then more than ever that I wasn’t ready and that I didn’t want that type of responsibility. I was more than happy to leave the boy with Janet to be raised by another man. They had to be better than I could ever be. And then I realized that there might be more children like Tim out there that I was unaware of. I spent the next couple of years looking into my old hookups, making sure there weren’t. I then made double sure that I had taken the right precautions and wore protection for my future… dates. Thankfully, I found no other child. No other progeny I might be surprised to find out about.

“I was relieved and happy to play the role of Godfather for the one kid I did have a part in bringing into this world. And for a few years… I was perfectly fine with that. Between Janet and JARVIS, I never forgot to send a present for birthdays and Christmases. I visited every time I was on the East Coast… but as he got older… I started wondering…”

“Wondering what?”

Pepper startled a little bit, realizing that not only were Tim and Jason still in the room, but they were both watching and listening to Tony too.

“I started wondering if I was wrong,” Tony said gently. “I… started to see parts of myself in you. You were smarter and aware beyond your years. As someone who’d grown up a child prodigy I started wondering on occasion what it would be like… to be a father to one. I would have been terrible at it, I know, I always knew… but I wanted to become more involved in your life. I could tell that that was what Janet had hoped would happen, because she encouraged it. She made suggestions for bonding activities, she planned parties and galas and events that she knew I would have to attend and therefore make plans to stay a couple nights. …Especially after the night the Flying Graysons fell.”

“I remember,” Tim said softly. “A lot of my earlier memories of you are from around that time. You took me to museums and we’d make up stories behind the works of art. One time, you bought me some robot toy and we took it apart and put it back together.”

“It was also around that time that your parents began to go away more often and on longer trips,” Tony said sadly. “And I never noticed until you were eight and showing me all of your pictures. I then realized…”

“That Mother and Father were another Howard and Maria Stark,” Tim finished.

Pepper wasn’t sure how Tim was feeling about that last statement. He wasn’t quite sad, but he wasn’t angry either. It was delivered very matter of fact.

“And that’s when the summer visits started?” Jason asked.

“Yup,” Tony said, popping the ‘p’ and smiled a bit. “Barely even a month after Timmy let the big bomb drop that he’d known for a while that I was his biological dad.”

“How’d you figure that out?” Pepper asked the younger teen.

“I’m rather good at figuring things out,” Tim said, shrugging. “Over time Tony became more familiar to me than my parents as I grew up. Of course I’d seen and the similarities between us and realized how much my mother was trying to get us more involved with each other. She invested more time in getting Tony to interact with me than she ever did with Jack, my supposed father figure. I can honestly go on for hours talking about all the things I’ve done with Tony throughout my childhood, but I can’t name one outing I went on with Jack. I remember getting a baseball glove for Christmas when I was five, but I can’t recall ever having gone out with him to toss a ball around in the yard. He was never home long enough for that sort of thing. Most of my interactions with him were during dinner, the occasional lunch, some holidays, parties I had to attend with my parents to help present a family image for the company, and the few times my mother and I would join him in the study and read quietly together. When Tony visited, there would be some business talk, but Tony would always at one point or another be left alone with me. Sometimes Mother would be there sorting through papers or something while she watched us tinker with whatever thing we were taking apart and reassembling, but honestly… I think I always knew deep down that Tony was my dad. Jack and I never really connected on anything back then.

“I knew for sure, though, when I was four and Tony was visiting around Christmas time. I was in bed sick with a horrible head cold and Mother and Father had to leave for some reason I can’t quite recall. Tony was basically voluntold to watch me. My head ached and no matter what position I took, I just could not get comfortable. I was cold more than I was hot. I don’t remember much, but at one point I remember being held and hearing science babble. Funny thing was, I understood half of it. I think some of it was even said falsely just to see if I knew the correct solution.”

“I did do that,” Tony chuckled, eyes cast up towards the ceiling. “I was going over basic engineering and started talking about the mechanics behind cars. Once I realized that you actually understood some of what I was saying…”

“You totally quizzed me,” Tim huffed, shaking his head.

“Yup!”

And there was that grin Pepper was growing increasingly fond of. Tony only smiled like that on rare occasions, but she was seeing it more and more when the boys were around and even had it aimed at her the longer they dated. She wished that Tony would smile like that more often.

“And it was when you were putting me back to bed, you said something like, “of course my kid would fall asleep or find peace listening to me talk about mechanics or whatever.” The point is, you called me your kid and all I could think was, well yeah. I am your kid, aren’t I? That was when you started to slip up and say a lot of the “any child of mine,” or “no kid of mine” stuff. Then it became a kind of game to see if I could get you to admit that I was yours. I had to tone it down a lot though when I was around Jack, because even though she found it amusing, Mother still didn’t want Jack to know that I was yours and not his.”

“Does he know now?” Pepper asked.

“No,” Tim and Tony said, shaking their heads emphatically.

“Jack, for all his flaws in his youth, loved Janet, and if he ever found out… I don’t want to tarnish his memory of her with this knowledge,” Tony sighed. “Because, despite our brief interlude, Janet had remained faithful to him. What we shared was a night of drunken mistakes. It meant nothing even though we got an amazing kid out of it.”

Tim smiled, but Pepper didn’t understand how he _could_ smile. Tony had basically called Tim’s existence a drunken mistake. He’d heard how Tony had said that he’d never wanted a kid. How he hadn’t wanted to be a parent. If she were in Tim’s shoes, she wasn’t sure she could look at Tony as lovingly as he did when he’d basically been unwanted by the man for the first few years of his life.

“And despite his lack of presence in my childhood,” Tim picked up, “I still think of Jack as my father. I loved him then, and I love him now. We’re actually a lot closer now than we’d been before _because_ of our crummy past. I may not be his biologically, but he is the man who raised me, and who has continued to love me unconditionally in spite of all that’s happened between us these last few years. Yeah, Tony’s my dad and I love him more than anything, but the same goes for Jack. They’re both my dads, just to different degrees. I wouldn’t want my relationship with Jack to come into question again just because of something as silly as biology.”

“Now if we’ve gotten all of that out of the way,” Tony said, coughing into his hand, obviously growing uncomfortable with the subject, “It’s getting late and I need to suit up and get ready to take this tower off the main power grid. Tim, Jay, do you two mind helping Pepper prep the tower for the transition from city power to reactor power?”

“Sure,” the boys said, getting up from the armchair.

Pepper smiled as she watched Tony ruffle Jason’s hair and pull Tim into a brief hug before he took off and vanished towards his lab to put on the Iron Man armor.

 

Later that night Tim and Jason were on the roof of the blacked out Stark Tower by the arc reactor generator which was still on.

“ _Good to go on this end_ ,” Tony reported via the comms. “ _The rest is up to you._ ”

“ _Have you disconnected the transmission lines? Are we off the grid?_ ” they could hear Pepper ask over her comm. from her position in the living room.

“ _Stark Tower’s about to become a beacon of self-sustaining clean energy_ ,” Tony said, sounding smug.

“ _Well, assuming that the arc reactor takes over and actually works,_ ” Pepper retorted, but she needn’t have worried. That was what Tim and Jason were for.

The boys had made sure that the generator was still online and working when Tony had cut the tower off from the city’s main power grid. Now all they needed to do was make sure that it would power the entire tower by itself.

“ _Light her up_ ,” Tony ordered over the comms. Pepper and JARVIS ran the controls from inside while Jason and Tim monitored the reactor as the tower beneath them began to light up. They knew that the whole tower had become lit when the big bold letters spelling out STARK lit up behind them.

“ _How does it look?_ ” Pepper asked.

“ _Like Christmas, but with more me,_ ” Tony quipped.

“ _We’ve gotta go wider on the public awareness campaign. You need to do some press_ ,” Pepper said, starting to ramble excitedly. “ _I’m in DC, tomorrow, working on the zoning for the next three buildings-_ ”

“ _Pepper,_ ” Tony cut in, sounding both exasperated and fond, “ _you’re killing me. The moment? Remember? Enjoy the moment._ ”

Tim and Jason snorted, shaking their heads, watching as the Iron Man suit flew up to the tower and touched down out of sight a floor down from them on the landing pad with the built in assembly rig Tony had designed just to put on and take off the suit.

“ _Then get in here and I will_ ,” Pepper said slyly.

“Aaand, we’re so taking the back door,” Jason huffed. “I do not need to see those two get all lovey dovey.”

Tim chuckled, but agreed full-heartedly as he followed Jason back down into the tower, but avoiding the main living room. They were about to take their comms. out when JARVIS suddenly spoke up.

“ _Sir, Agent Coulson of SHIELD is on the line_ ,” the AI reported.

“ _I’m not in_ ,” they heard Tony say over the clank and whirr of Tony’s suit being disabled and taken off. “ _I’m actually out_.”

“ _Sir, I’m afraid he’s insisting_ ,” JARVIS said.

“ _Grow a spine, JARVIS. I’ve got a date_ ,” was Tony’s little zinger back.

The teens frowned, wondering what SHIELD was up to. They’d done some digging since the Vanko debacle and discovered that SHIELD was a world government spy organization whose goal was world peace, which was fine and dandy, but it didn’t really explain what they needed Tony (a well known former weapons manufacturer) for. They’d been unable to uncover anything about this Avengers Initiative thing that Coulson and Fury had told Tony about and that worried them. Knowing what they did about SHIELD, Coulson likely wouldn’t give up just because Tony wouldn’t answer the phone.

The boys hurried back into the tower and towards the living room. Jason actually suggested they go up into the vents.

“Really?” Tim hissed in exasperation. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

They instead entered the living room like normal people and slipped into the secret private elevator that Tim had ridden up when he’d arrived at the tower. Pepper and Tony hadn’t noticed them because they were squabbling about percentages and bantering about whose name would go on the next building’s side and lease. The boys rolled their eyes.

“They’re worse than Bruce and Selina,” Jason grumbled, making Tim grin.

“Please, relationships between couples like Bruce and Selina, and Tony and Pepper thrive on their bantering.”

Jason snickered.

“ _Sir, the telephone_ ,” JARVIS said, sounding a bit off, making Tim frown. “ _I’m afraid my protocols are being overwritten._ ”

“ _Stark we need to talk_ ,” a man’s voice said over the phone line JARVIS had pulled up in the elevator. The AI had also pulled up security camera footage from the living room of Tony and Pepper for Tim and Jason to see.

“Thanks, JARVIS,” Tim said, watching Tony pick up his STARK phone.

“You have reached the life model decoy of Tony Stark,” Tony said, making Tim and Jason grin. Even Pepper was shaking her head. “Please leave a message.”

“ _This is urgent_ ,” the man on the phone said.

“Then leave it urgently,” Tony said just before the main elevator doors opened and an unassuming man in a suit stepped out, hanging up a phone and slipping it into his pocket.

“Security breach! Which is on you.” Tony cried, much to Tim, Jason and Pepper’s amusement.

“Mr. Stark.”

“Phil!” Pepper cried, getting to her feet. “Come in.”

“Phil?” Tony said with a frown, getting up.

“I can’t stay,” Coulson sighed.

“Uh, his first name is Agent.”

Tim and Jason snorted, shaking their heads as they watched the footage of Tony and Pepper greeting the man exiting the elevator.

“Come in, we’re celebrating,” Pepper said.

“Which is why he can’t stay,” Tony said, though he was grinning at the man.

“We need you to look this over,” Coulson said, holding out a large folder of some kind out to Tony who baulked a bit. “As soon as possible.”

“I don’t like being handed things,” Tony said, his grip on the champagne glass in his hand tightening a fraction.

“That’s fine because I like to be handed things, so let’s trade,” Pepper said, taking the folder and giving Coulson her champagne glass in exchange. Then she took Tony’s glass and handed him the folder. He gave her a slight glare as she said “thank you,” and took a sip from his glass.

But Tony didn’t say a word, instead turning to Coulson saying, “Official consulting hours are between eight and five every other Thursday.”

“This isn’t a consultation,” Coulson said, looking quite serious.

“Is this about the Avengers?” Pepper asked, before quickly saying, “which I know nothing about.”

Tony scoffed, turning away as he opened the folder, revealing that it was more high-tech than they’d thought. Tim’s hands itched to get their fingers on it to see how it worked.

“The Avengers Initiative was scrapped I thought, and I didn’t even qualify,” Tony said derisively, which was news to Jason and Tim. Then again, Tony was perhaps one of the worlds greatest hackers. It was very possible that he knew more than they’d been able to uncover.

“Yeah, I didn’t know that either,” Pepper added, trying to look innocent and failing, but Coulson looked more amused than irritated.

“Yeah, apparently I’m volatile, obsessed, don’t play well with others,” Tony said, leveling a look at Coulson, but seemed unperturbed by his voiced shortcomings.

“That I did know,” Pepper said, also looking amused now.

“This isn’t about personality profiles anymore,” Coulson said, back to being serious and professional.

“Whatever,” Tony muttered, looking at whatever it was that he was seeing in the folder. “Miss Potts? Got a sec?”

“Half a moment,” Pepper said before trotting over to join Tony where he had the folder by the wet bar. The security footage angle was off, so Jason and Tim couldn’t actually see what Tony was seeing.

“You know, I thought we were having a moment,” Tony said softly, but JARVIS’s speakers could pick him up easily.

“I was having twelve percent of a moment,” Pepper quipped and Tony gave her a pained look. “This seems serious. Phil seems pretty shaken.”

“How do you know this, and why is he Phil?” Tony asked.

“What is all this?” Pepper asked, ignoring his question.

“This is…” Tony huffed, doing something before throwing his hands out and revealing a wall of holograms before them. “This.”

The camera angle was still off, but Tim thought he could see some footage on some of the panels. One of a big green guy roaring and throwing a tank. Both Tony and Pepper looked awed and surprised by what they were seeing.

“I’m going to take the jet to DC tonight,” Pepper said.

“Tomorrow,” Tony insisted.

“ _You_ have homework,” Pepper said firmly. “You have a _lot_ of homework.”

“But what if I … didn’t?” Tony asked.

“If you didn’t?” Pepper repeated, looking amused again. “You mean when you’ve finished?”

Tony nodded.

“Well…” Pepper said looking sly and began whispering in his ear. If Coulson’s uncomfortable expression was any indication, Tim and Jason were glad that JARVIS’s speakers weren’t picking anything up this time and they couldn’t hear. Or perhaps Coulson was just an awkward person and felt he was intruding on a private moment.

“It’s a square deal. Fly safe,” Tony finally said when Pepper stepped back.

“Work hard,” Pepper said, pressing a kiss to Tony’s cheek before rejoining Phil Coulson by the elevator. “So, any chance of you driving by LaGuardia?”

“I can drive you.”

“Fantastic!” Pepper said, grinning, joining him in the elevator. “And I wanna hear about that Cellist. Is that still a thing?”

“She moved back to Portland,” Coulson said.

“What? Boo!” Pepper cried as the elevator door shut behind them.

“Well they appear to be good friends,” Jason mused.

Tim nodded, stepping out of their private elevator and headed towards Tony and his wall of holograms. His dad was already immersed in the information it seemed. There were four main panels. Three in the back, and one directly in front of Tony. One in the back on the right showed a large blond man with long hair fighting a bunch of agents in a compound of some kind over a large hammer it seemed. There was also some footage of this same man in a red cape fighting a large metal creature. The middle panel was a face Tim was actually rather familiar with. Captain America, the World War II hero. He was believed to have been the world’s first public superhero. There was an image of him encased in ice and being thawed below some old war movies the man had filmed during his USO tour days. The last back panel on the left was of the large green man Tim had seen glimpses of from the footage JARVIS had streamed to the elevator. The smaller holo screen in front of Tony had information that Tony seemed far more interested in.

“What is that?” Jason asked, looking at a blue cube Tony was holding in his hands. Tony scowled before popping the cube back into the holo display.

“It’s called the Tesseract,” the man explained. “Apparently earlier this evening this man,” Tony pointed to a blurry image on a thin looking man with lang raven hair, “called Loki, attacked a SHIELD base and stole it. That’s what Agent was here about. They guy is apparently a god and brother to this guy,” Tony pointed to the holo panel for the big blond on the left. “Thor.”

“Thor and Loki? Like the Norse gods?” Tim asked.

“Apparently they _are_ the Norse gods,” Tony sighed.

“...You’ve seen this Tesseract thing before, haven’t you?” Tim asked.

“How do you figure that, Baby Bird?” Jason asked, frowning.

“Dad’s got his, “Dammit Howard” face on,” Tim said, smirking when Tony cracked a small smile.

“I have a “Dammit Howard” face?” Tony asked.

“Yup. You look like Grumpy Cat,” Tim chuckled.

“That new internet meme?” Jason asked, cracking a grin.

“Doesn’t he, though?” Tim beamed.

Tony scowled at them, but that only made the boys laugh harder.

“Alright, away with you, two. I have work to do,” Tony huffed.

“Not a chance. Let us help,” Tim said, wiping all traces of mirth from his face.

Jason nodded. Standing on Tony’s other side. The three of them delved into the information and did their best to figure out what SHIELD was up to and what this Loki guy was about.


End file.
